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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28155882">UZUMAKI UNLEASHED!</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Phlebas/pseuds/Phlebas'>Phlebas</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Courting Culture Confusion [13]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Naruto</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Author Is Sleep Deprived, BAMF Namikaze Minato, BAMF Uzumaki Kushina, Because the rest of this series takes everything seriously, Canon-Typical Behavior, Canon-Typical Violence, Crack Treated Seriously, Cultural Differences, Enthusiastic Consent, Explicit Consent, F/M, Fuuinjutsu Master Namikaze Minato, Fuuinjutsu Master Uzumaki Kushina, Good Parent Namikaze Minato, Good Parent Uzumaki Kushina, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Masturbation, Mutual Pining, My First Work in This Pairing, NO rape, Namikaze Minato Lives, Namikaze Minato-centric, No Sex, No Smut, Parent Namikaze Minato, Parent Uzumaki Kushina, Pining, Prank Master Uzumaki Kushina, Romance, Romantic Comedy, Uzumaki Kushina Lives, Uzumaki Kushina-centric</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 17:41:18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,339</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28155882</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Phlebas/pseuds/Phlebas</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>How Kushina got her man.</p><p>(And Minato got his girl.)</p><p>Story told in omake style.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Namikaze Minato/Uzumaki Kushina</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Courting Culture Confusion [13]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2021387</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>34</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>51</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Author’s Notes</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zanahoria/gifts">Zanahoria</a>.</li>


        <li>
            Inspired by

            <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27435208">Escape and Evade</a> by <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/Phlebas/pseuds/Phlebas">Phlebas</a>.
        </li>
        <li>
            Inspired by

            <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27692251">The World Building of Courting Culture Confusion</a> by <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/Phlebas/pseuds/Phlebas">Phlebas</a>.
        </li>

    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>For Zanahoria, who made this comment about the difference between the R&amp;D labs and the T&amp;I labs:</p><p>
  <i>I'm picturing a very naive recruit going over the rules and thinking 'everyone here is crazy'. Then they go to Izuna's lab and don't see the crazy list and think it's because people here are more sensible.</i>
</p><p>
  <i>Actually, every recruit that gets to Izuna's lab goes through that though process. It's just that the few ones that think that the 'sensible thing' is to have no limitations are the ones that stay-</i>
</p><p>Thank you so much for being a wonderful enabler.</p>
    </blockquote><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Warnings!</p><p>(Please heed them.)</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>This story is set in the world of <i>Escape &amp; Evade</i>, a world in which the village was formed quite differently to cannon.</p><p>There are reasons for the differences from cannon in this story and many of them are contained in <i>The World Building of Escape and Evade</i>.</p><p>However, there are a few things that might be relevant so I’m going to put them here:</p><p>Characterisations differ significantly from cannon as the the timelines have diverged a lot over time.</p><p>Minato was never adopted into the Namikaze family. He’s civilian born and thinks like it for all of his shinobi training.</p><p>There are also two original characters in their story who are the children of characters from <i>Escape &amp; Evade</i>.</p><p>Reo (嶺臣) (meaning: “at the summit of the mountain”) is the first born son of Seto. He runs the publicly visible R&amp;D labs founded by Tobirama, as opposed to the covert T&amp;I labs founded by Izuna which are run by Orochimaru.</p><p>Niko (二湖)  (meaning: “two lakes”) is Tobirama’s daughter who eventually chooses to claim the Uzumaki as her clan affiliation. She is only mentioned in this story.</p><p>Warning for a fair amount of crude vulgarity and an enthusiastically positive Uzumaki.</p><p>The warning for graphic violence is for a food and fist fight.</p><p>This story begins before Wild Wolves and ends several years after.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Positive Pursuit</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Take life by the throat.</p><p>(And shake it.)</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Uzumaki Kushina arrives from Uzushio, fresh off the boat, determined to learn how to teleport and goes right to work for the Seal Development Department at R&amp;D.</p><p>Where she violates ALL of the Anija Safety Directives in her first MONTH.</p><p>Reo, who is the head of R&amp;D, begs Orochimaru, who is the head of the T&amp;I Labs, to take her AWAY.</p><p>She settles into the Seals Section of the T&amp;I Labs and never leaves - she is their undisputed BOSS OF SEALS.</p><p>A year after Kushina takes over the T&amp;I Seals Section, Minato becomes the head of the R&amp;D Seal Development Department. The two teams have a lot of overlap and a lot of meetings.</p><p>Kushina LOVES his stuff. He just uses it for things that she finds BORING.</p><p>He needs livening up.</p><p>She decides that it is now her job to MAKE THIS PRETTY BOY GENIUS HAVE MORE FUN.</p><p>This means that the village gets very used to seeing Minato running away from her pranks, screaming. In joy at their brilliance (Kushina’s opinion) or terror (everyone else’s opinion) - who can tell?</p><p>And then Kushina realises:</p><p>Minato is a PRETTY BOY GENIUS.</p><p>He’s SEXY with potential for GOOD BABIES.</p><p>Uzumaki CATNIP.</p><p>She is ALL OVER THAT.</p><p>So Kushina attempts to seduce Minato in the usual Uzumaki way.</p><p>She knocks on his office door (What? She can be polite if she wants to be!) sticks her head in while he’s in a meeting with his boss and says:</p><p>“Hey, Minato-kun! Wanna fuck?”</p><p>Minato turns bright red.</p><p>He has no idea what to do.</p><p>His boss is right there!</p><p>Staring at him!</p><p>And this madwoman is propositioning him?!</p><p>He’s frozen. Like a rabbit.</p><p>Reo has seen this exact conversation multiple times all through his childhood when visiting Uzushio with Tobi-oji and is now watching Minato face down his very first Uzumaki style proposition. His Uzumaki cousin Niko still propositions people like this too, even at sixty.</p><p>He knows that Kushina is totally unembarrassed by his presence, and there is no way he is missing this. Minato-kun will need to know how to deal with the unexpected if he’s to take over R&amp;D, and he’s both too old and too shinobi to be feel any shame about underhanded tactics like inflicting an Uzumaki on unsuspecting people.</p><p>So he says "Oh, don't mind me. I'll just look over Minato-kun's proposals while you discuss this." and wanders off to Minato's desk with a stack of paperwork.</p><p>Now Minato is stuck.</p><p>His boss has implicitly approved this conversation.</p><p>So Minato takes a deep breath, finds some gumption, and says "Kushina-san, I'm very flattered but, uh, I don't think this is an appropriate conversation for the work place?"</p><p>Kushina thinks about it. He could be right. This might be one of those mainlander things. And it's important to respect his comfort and consent.</p><p>So she goes, "Okay, your choice - where <i>is</i> a good place to talk about it?"</p><p>Minato thinks furiously.</p><p>Public might be better. Maybe she will have more of a sense of decorum?</p><p>"Perhaps... we might meet for dinner. At a restaurant?"</p><p>And Kushina says "Sure! Just let me know when you decide which one!" and leaves.</p><p>A few days later, there's a note in the T&amp;I message box.</p><p>"Dear Kushina, dinner at The Golden Flower? Tomorrow? Just before sunset?"</p><p>But it's not Kushina who picks it up.</p><p>Instead, it’s one of the other T&amp;I employees.</p><p>The note is passed around the office.</p><p>Who is asking their mad Uzumaki boss out for dinner? Is she being courted? Are they crazy? Are they prepared for HER crazy? WHO IS THIS AND HOW DOES T&amp;I NOT ALREADY KNOW ABOUT THEM????</p><p>They immediately start up a betting pool.</p><p>Everyone places their bets and decides they will now stalk Kushina to find out WHAT IS GOING ON.</p><p>(Orochimaru is rolling his eyes in the background while he does DNA splicing on rabbits. The rabbits are glowing green. He's so glad Kushina got him a sealing scroll of jellyfish from Uzushio.)</p><p>The letter is left - very prominently - on Kushina's desk.</p><p>Everyone holds their breath in anticipation.</p><p>Kushina picks up the letter, does a fist pump and goes "YES!"</p><p>Then she leaves the office.</p><p>Everyone thinks she's gone to make up a nice courting present. They are agog to see what she will pick.</p><p>Kushina has actually gone to get her favourite seduction outfit out of her sealing scroll.</p><p>She intends to KNOCK HIS SOCKS OFF.</p><p>And then roll him into bed.</p><p>Minato shows up at the restaurant half an hour early.</p><p>Reo-sama has very kindly not said anything about Kushina's proposition, but he can <i>feel</i> the eyes watching him.</p><p>Thank god no one in the R&amp;D labs heard anything about Kushina's visit.</p><p>(They did. They're stalking him too. He used the R&amp;D message box to send his note - it's a PUBLIC box.)</p><p>He's dressed well, but not formally enough to show an intent to court. Just a respectful version of what he thinks of as casual wear instead of his usual outfit (which is either a combat uniform or the clothing he does his experiments in).</p><p>He's sitting at the table he booked, holding flowers - because it's polite to bring a gift for a lady that you have invited to a meal - when Kushina arrives.</p><p>And she is STUNNING.</p><p>In the anime, blood would have spouted out of his nose like a fountain and he would have fainted.</p><p>Here, he just blushes bright red, mutters something that he fervently hopes is complimentary in a vaguely coherent manner, and thrusts the flowers at her.</p><p>The flowers he chose were daffodils. Not too expensive, easily obtainable, and they say "I regard you with respect."</p><p>Because he does. He respects her abilities, her exuberance, and her matter of fact approach to life.</p><p>He's just not quite sure if he wants it all focused on <i>him</i>.</p><p>In his personal experience, that way lies terror, screaming, and being woken up in the middle of the night with sharks in his bed.</p><p>Not his preference.</p><p>Basically, he's hoping this will be a very polite and deferential "I like you, but not that way. Still friends? (Please don't prank me anymore.)"</p><p>What he doesn't know is that daffodils have another, much less well known meaning.</p><p>They also mean unrequited love.</p><p>Oops.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>For anyone who is curious, Orochimaru was grabbed for the T&amp;I chemistry and poisons section by Izuna as soon as he made Chūnin. That was in 1869, which was a landmark year in genetic research, because it was the year in which Swiss physiological chemist Friedrich Miescher first identified what he called "nuclein" inside the nuclei of human white blood cells.</p><p>He is working on splicing DNA from jellyfish into rabbits in 1890.</p><p>That is twenty one years of DNA research.</p><p>I know that is massively sped up from the actual timeline of DNA research in the real world but it was as close as I could manage, considering that I had to take into account his work with DNA in cannon and that ethical research goes more slowly than unethical research.</p><p>Also, Minato took over the R&amp;D Seal Development Department in 1887. Kushina propositions him in 1890.</p><p>Kushina was pranking Minato for three years.</p><p>That’s a lot of sharks in Minato’s bed.</p><p>Is it any wonder than he’s terrified of her?</p><p>(He doesn’t feel threatened by her. He’s just terrified of being pranked AGAIN.)</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Mutual Misunderstanding</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>When you don’t understand, ask.</p><p>(Or this happens.)</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Now KUSHINA is the one who is flabbergasted.</p><p>She wanted SEX and now this pretty boy is offering her hanakotoba that says HE IS IN LOVE WITH HER?</p><p>If he is doing this Konoha-Senju style, he has jumped right over the Providing and gone straight to the Declaration.</p><p>He might have thought the meal was Providing though...</p><p>And there is NO WAY she is ready for a CONTRACT.</p><p>She's still young! Exploring the world! Having fun with explosions! SHE'S NOT READY TO BE MARRIED!</p><p>She needs to play for time to decide how into this she is.</p><p>"Um, Minato-kun... This is very sudden don't you think?"</p><p>Minato is confused. What's sudden about it?</p><p>She was the one to proposition him, she asked him for the meeting, he just rejected her.</p><p>Did she not expect the rejection?</p><p>He has a lightbulb moment.</p><p>Maybe that's the sudden bit. She was expecting him to say yes.</p><p>"Kushina-san, I'm very sorry, but those are truly my feelings. I hope that you can accept them."</p><p>He bows.</p><p>"I will absolutely understand if you do not share them, but I hope that you will respect my choices."</p><p>(He's thinking: Please accept this rejection gracefully! I don't want to know <i>what</i> you might do if you don't!</p><p>Kushina is thinking: OH SHIT! He <i>is</i> in love with me!)</p><p>So she says, "I absolutely respect your choices Minato-kun! Your choices are of the utmost importance in our relationship! I just... don't feel the same way. I hope that you understand my feelings too."</p><p>She bows as well.</p><p>(Kushina is thinking: I don't Accept! Please don't try and make me love you!</p><p>Minato is thinking: OH SHIT! She still wants me for SEX!)</p><p>Neither of them know what to do.</p><p>Kushina is terrified that Minato will pursue her for LOVE.</p><p>Minato is terrified that Kushina will pursue him for SEX.</p><p>They're stuck in this stalemate of bowing in a very fancy restaurant in PUBLIC.</p><p>When both of their teams burst into the restaurant and all of the shinobi immediately start yelling.</p><p>Everyone from the T&amp;I Seals Section who put their bet on Minato courting Kushina demands they be paid - he gave her DAFFODILS!</p><p>Everyone from the R&amp;D Seal Development Department who bet that Minato would reject Kushina yells back that no he's NOT courting her - he gave her DAFFODILS!</p><p>(Reo and Orochimaru refused to participate in this nonsense. They knew they'd hear all about it at work the next day and what good is a shinobi who can't filter truth out of rumour? They are both very good shinobi.)</p><p>It turns into a giant mess.</p><p>There is a fist fight, food is flying everywhere, the restaurant is trashed, and all the other diners either leap onto the ceiling for better safety from projectiles and a better vantage point of the crazy (shinobi) or leave in an orderly manner (civilians who are used to shinobi).</p><p>During the fight, a T&amp;I shinobi with a massive crush on Kushina in the middle of the mess yells "Kushina-san could totally take down your Minato-san! He's nothing to MATCH HER! HE'S NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR HER!"</p><p>R&amp;D take immediate exception to this and immediately scream back "YES HE IS! HIS SEALS ARE THE BEST AND HE CAN PRANK HER BACK ANY DAY OF THE WEEK! SHE SHOULD BE SO LUCKY AS TO BE ROMANCED BY HIM!!!"</p><p>The fist fight gains in intensity.</p><p>Someone is going to call for Internal Defence to show up any minute when Minato and Kushina take charge.</p><p>Their teams are EMBARRASSING THEM.</p><p>No matter how they might act in their private lives, they are Professionals and this is Unprofessional Behaviour with a capital U.</p><p>They roar out orders for everyone to SHUT UP AND SIT DOWN OR THEY WILL MAKE YOU, SO HELP YOU GODS! AND YES, THAT MEANS <i>YOU</i>!</p><p>Everyone knows what that means and they all sit down on the floor like scolded children while muttering rebelliously that <i>their</i> boss is better than <i>your</i> boss just look at her/him take charge of you idiots.</p><p>Kushina and Minato then take turns delivering a scathing lecture on:</p><p>1. being professional as a member of a sealing team - you represent our work! (Kushina)<br/>
2. being professional as a shinobi - you represent your clan / family / village! (Minato)<br/>
3. not interfering in other people's private business - what disrespect! (Kushina)<br/>
4. making bets on other people - speculation is not appropriate work place behaviour! (Minato)<br/>
5. not stalking your boss / co-workers - totally unwarranted intrusions! (Kushina)<br/>
6. getting caught - WHAT KIND OF SHINOBI EVEN ARE YOU! (Both of them)</p><p>Everyone is both extremely impressed and very cowed.</p><p>Also kind of turned on.</p><p>(They are both very hot when they are angry. Plus Kushina is STUNNING in her seduction outfit.)</p><p>Minato and Kushina tell everyone to go home and they will all be on punishment duty for a week starting tomorrow.</p><p>As everyone is getting up, dusting themselves off and picking up the furniture in preparation to leave, the youngest and most junior member of Minato's team says, "But Taichō! Are you really courting Kushina-san?"</p><p>Minato pats him on the head and says "No, I absolutely respect all of Kushina-san's choices and would never dream of pursuing her against her will. Why, she might try and prank me as punishment!" and he winks.</p><p>Then his second in command comes up, apologises and says that she's so sorry for the mess, she doesn't know what she was thinking, she will see him at work tomorrow.</p><p>She is also blushing furiously. (She thinks Minato is hot.)</p><p>This makes Kushina think.</p><p>So Minato loves her. But he won't pursue her. He has respect for her choices and her comfort. He's sexy, has good genes, and is really a very decent guy.</p><p>He's actually relationship material.</p><p>She makes a snap decision.</p><p>She may not be ready for marriage, but he is absolutely good enough for a love affair.</p><p>SHE will pursue HIM.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Kushina refers to the steps of the Senju Courting Customs very specifically in this chapter and, if you want to know more about them, you can check out chapter 41 of <i>The World Building of Courting Culture Confusion</i>, <i>World Building - The Purpose of Senju Marriage Contracts</i>. It was written specifically for <i>Escape and Evade</i> so it focuses a lot on the characters from that story, but the steps haven't changed.</p><p>The Senju Courting Customs were adopted by Konoha as a whole, thanks to the Konoha Courting Customs Handbook which was published in 1838, and all the Konoha shinobi who are unaffiliated with any particular clan still use them.</p><p>Kushina, being from the Uzumaki Clan which has long been allied with the Senju, is very familiar with them, but Minato isn’t even thinking of that - he’s civilian born and it doesn’t come naturally to him.</p><p>She's assuming that he's trying to court her. He's not.</p><p>oops.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Plots and Plans</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The perfect gift.</p><p>(Is hard to find.)</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Over the next few days, the T&amp;I Seals Section gets used to Kushina walking around with a dreamy, distracted look on her face.</p><p>They all think that she is pining over Minato and go "AW!"</p><p>She is actually PLOTTING.</p><p>She needs to plan this properly.</p><p>She tried the Uzumaki way to ask for SEX.</p><p>Minato countered with a Senju Declaration of LOVE.</p><p>She turned him down pretty comprehensively.</p><p>He's probably pining.</p><p>She needs to GO BIG or GO HOME.</p><p>But she also needs to request time to fall in love.</p><p>Hm! This is complicated.</p><p>This would be so much easier if he was an Uzumaki - she'd just grab him and they'd talk it out.</p><p>But, this way - it's also a challenge.</p><p>And she LOVES challenges.</p><p>She's halfway to falling in love with him already, just for being so adorable and presenting her with this whole conundrum.</p><p>So she thinks, plots, plans, and decides on a two step process.</p><p>First, she'll bow to his customs.</p><p>He wants Senju style courtship, she will do it. She knows the steps, she is prepared, and getting her mom to negotiate with his Sensei will take months since both of them are not in the village. (She knows - she checked with Orochimaru-san. If anyone can be relied upon to know the whereabouts of Jiraiya, it's his old friend.)</p><p>That takes care of the time delay.</p><p>She's pleased about that.</p><p>So she can go really BIG with her Providing gift to reassure him, without feeling under pressure to make up a Contract straight away.</p><p>She works on it furiously.</p><p>Minato loves seals.</p><p>She'll give him one.</p><p>She can't give him an Uzumaki one - those are not hers to give.</p><p>She has to give him something personal.</p><p>Something that's just hers.</p><p>She decides to give him a seal that will trap a target upon application, no matter how strong the target is.</p><p>Not a paralysis seal like Tobirama-sama's, or a genjutsu seal like Izuna-sama's. Both of those trap the mind - one within the body, and the other within itself.</p><p>She is going to make a seal that will trap a whole person - body and mind - in a seal and allow them to live there.</p><p>Permanently, if necessary.</p><p>She works on it for months.</p><p>It ends up taking her almost a whole year.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Yes, the seal that Kushina is working on is the equivalent in this AU of the seal that traps the bijuu in cannon.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Musing Minato</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Thinking things through.</p><p>(Often helps.)</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>As for Minato, he is initially relieved not to be pranked constantly - his paranoia dies down considerably - but he's sad that his rejection means that she isn't around anymore.</p><p>She's really cool. She makes awesome seals. Her ninjutsu is fabulous - he has a huge crush on her signature sealing chains. She's enthusiastic about everything. She's a great boss.</p><p>And she totally backed him up when they were yelling at their crazy teams.</p><p>That's... nice.</p><p>He's not from a clan.</p><p>His family came to Konoha as civilians. He's only a shinobi because he had too much chakra to be anything else.</p><p>In fact, if he'd stayed a civilian... he might have very well ended up working with Kushina in the chemistry section of the T&amp;I Labs. That would have been.. really good, actually...</p><p>So he wishes they could have been friends.</p><p>Wait.</p><p>Actually, they still could be!</p><p>So he starts talking to her at every opportunity.</p><p>He follows her around when he sees her at the market and carries her shopping.</p><p>Every time their teams have a meeting together - which happens a lot - he buttonholes her after and talks her ear off about his sealing theories.</p><p>He waves and smiles every time he sees her and always makes sure to have a friendly greeting.</p><p>When she bemoans the crazy time her poor 'Ruka-chan is having with his Kakashi-kun he commiserates. He tells her that he tried to intervene and say something about how Kakashi was probably not going about things in the best way, but that Kakashi is determined to do things by the Hatake Clan tradition and won't hear another word about it. She says the Uzumaki handle things better. He agrees.</p><p>She tells him what it's like to grow up on Uzushio in a huge family. He genuinely says that he wishes he could visit and talks about how his civilian parents don't understand shinobi life - they love him and he loves them, but they don't understand him, and he can't help but feel left out of their day to day. She promises that, when she next goes back, she'll ask permission from her Clan Head for him to come up and study with her fuinjutsu master. He thanks her earnestly and with gratitude.</p><p>He asks her for sparing sessions which are always exciting - her ninjutsu and endurance against his speed and precision.</p><p>He is in awe of her stamina actually. She can just go, and go, and go, and go...</p><p>And then he realises.</p><p>That's probably what she's like in bed too.</p><p>It becomes one of his favourite fantasies.</p><p>Every night, he takes himself in hand and thinks about Kushina riding him into the futon.</p><p>Wow.</p><p>Now he REALLY regrets saying no to sex.</p><p>Wait.</p><p>They are friends. He wants sex with her. She wants sex with him.</p><p>He's romantically attracted to her.</p><p>Is she romantically attracted to him?</p><p>There's a way to find out.</p><p>See, Minato has this theory about the Hiraishin.</p><p>Tobirama-sama could use it with barely a flicker of chakra, allowing him to do it multiple times without exhaustion.</p><p>But everyone else that he managed to teach it to - and there aren't many - uses it once, maybe twice maximum and falls over.</p><p>There's got to be an issue with it.</p><p>Minato thinks that it's because the Hiraishin is a seal that relies on the mental conceptualisation of the user.</p><p>They have to know what they're doing, where they're going, and how they want to get there.</p><p>And the Hiraishin was created to help Tobirama-sama do it.</p><p>The key word there is 'Tobirama-sama'.</p><p>It works best for him.</p><p>For everyone else, it's like slogging through mud - the Hiraishin resists them all the way. They have to use brute force to <i>make</i> it work.</p><p>If he can just redevelop it to work with <i>his</i> thought patterns...</p><p>Then his version will work for him like the Hiraishin worked for Tobirama-sama.</p><p>That will make a really good gift of Providing.</p><p>It will show Kushina that he really wants a relationship, maybe enough to wipe out his previous rejection.</p><p>He's been working on it all along, but now he <i>really</i> knuckles down and gets to work.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. The Seal Story</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>When you work hard.</p><p>(You get results.)</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>For the next 6 months, they're both really distracted.</p><p>They talk as much as ever, but there's an undeniable "I'm thinking about something that's not you" feeling to their conversations.</p><p>And then, one day, when Minato is leaving the R&amp;D lab after a hard day of engraving the Hiraishin seal into one of his signature three pronged kunai, Kushina comes up to him.</p><p>Usually, it's the other way around.</p><p>So this is somewhat unusual.</p><p>"Minato-kun, may I speak with you?"</p><p>She's more formal than usual too.</p><p>"Sure, Kushina-san! What's up?"</p><p>She holds out a seal that's inked into her palm.</p><p>"Please. Touch this."</p><p>He trusts her. So he does.</p><p>He finds himself standing in the most beautiful Japanese garden he has ever beheld.</p><p>Cherry blossoms are falling from the trees. Plum blossoms bloom. The perfume of the flowers is strong in the air.</p><p>Distantly, he hears birds singing.</p><p>Above him the sun is high and he feels its warmth on the skin of his face.</p><p>He is standing on a pond and the wind makes ripples in the water.</p><p>He can feel the breeze on his cheeks.</p><p>Kushina is on the shore of the pond, her hand still held out. He can see the seal on it.</p><p>"Is this a genjutsu?" If it is, it's the most realistic one he's ever been in.</p><p>She shakes her head and smiles shyly.</p><p>"It's a world."</p><p>He is astonished.</p><p>"A world?!"</p><p>She explains it to him.</p><p>"It's a world within a seal. Our bodies are here. Everything we feel is real to us. You can eat, sleep, live. If you touch something, it will be real to you. The only difference is that time passes faster here. Hours here are a minute there.”</p><p>“You are no longer in the real world. You are now here. With me."</p><p>This is amazing. He's never felt anything like it.</p><p>He wants to run around and touch everything, but something in her face makes him pause.</p><p>She takes a deep breath for courage.</p><p>"Minato-kun. This seal is a seed, I offer to you, to show my intent to grow a relationship.”</p><p>He's speechless.</p><p>She's offering him a gift of Providing.</p><p>He never thought...</p><p>Wait.</p><p>He digs into one of his pockets and takes out the kunai that he engraved just this afternoon.</p><p>He leans across the gap between the lake and the shore, holding it out to her with both hands like an offering.</p><p>Because it is.</p><p>She reaches out and takes it, inspecting it curiously.</p><p>"It's a Hiraishin." he explains, "Made to work with my mind. With it, I teleport as fast and as easily as Tobirama-sama did with his.”</p><p>“Now that I have confirmed the concept, I offer to make one with you."</p><p>Her face lights up. This is the whole reason she came to Konoha in the first place.</p><p>She was so disappointed when the Hiraishin didn't work for her like it did for Tobirama-sama, and now Minato is offering to help her achieve it.</p><p>He's offering to help her make her dream into reality.</p><p>Just like she made a dream into reality for him.</p><p>She reads the seal. It says:</p><p>‘Uzumaki Kushina. This seal is a seed, I offer to you, to show my intent to grow a relationship.'</p><p>The map of his mind is a wish to grow a relationship between them.</p><p>She spreads her hands and he steps off the lake, onto the shore, and into her arms.</p><p>She closes them around him as she feels him press his face into her long, red hair.</p><p>He whispers into her ear, "I accept."</p><p>She whispers back, "So do I."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Demonstrative Declarations</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Knowledge brings understanding.</p><p>(To everyone.)</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>After that, it's like every day is a Declaration day.</p><p>Hanakotoba offerings fly back and forth between their offices. Everyone gets used to the bookshop Obaasan receiving flowers daily.</p><p>Civilians are bewildered.</p><p>Shinobi laugh.</p><p>Now Kushina is cursing her bright idea to have her mom talk to Jiraiya. She doesn't want to wait! She wants a contract tomorrow! Now! Yesterday even!</p><p>Minato offers to make his representative his mother - at least she's in the village? It might make turn around faster?</p><p>Kushina nixes that idea immediately.</p><p>Her mom the Uzumaki diplomat will wipe the floor with Minato's civilian mom. At least Jiraiya is a spy and has <i>some</i> training.</p><p>Minato says his mom actually haggles really well, but reluctantly agrees that this is somewhat outside her wheelhouse.</p><p>Eventually, they get their contract, approve it, and get married.</p><p>Minato wears the shiromuku to show that he's ready to become dyed in Uzumaki colours.</p><p>Kushina's younger cousins take him literally and dump dye all over him.</p><p>He only laughs.</p><p>They are blissfully happy.</p><p>And one day, in the future, when Naruto is 5, he says, "Mom, Dad! Tell me the story of the seal!"</p><p>And they do.</p><p>It's his favourite story.</p><p>They go stay in the seal all the time.</p><p>It gives them all a break, and both Kushina and Minato make good use of the accelerated time in there.</p><p>And then Naruto asks a question he's never asked before.</p><p>"Dad? When did you know Mom loved you?"</p><p>And Minato smiles softly and says, "When she stood on the shore and offered me the seal as a seed of a relationship."</p><p>Then Naruto turns to Kushina and asks the same question.</p><p>"Mom? When did you know Dad loved you?"</p><p>And Kushina grins wickedly and says, "When he gave me daffodils."</p><p>And Minato says, "WHAT?!"</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Epilogue and Ending (and a Beginning)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Sometimes, you do end up keeping your promises.</p><p>(Even the ones you made when you were 7.)</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>After that, all anyone needs to do is say "daffodils" to make Naruto break into hysterical giggles.</p><p>As he gets older, he swears that he too will one day open his own courtship with daffodils, and do it all backwards just like his parents.</p><p>Believe it!</p><p>And he does.</p><p>It is the very first flower he offers Sasuke.</p><p>The End.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>And that’s it!</p><p>That’s all I have for Kushina and Minato's love story.</p><p>But that’s not all you will see in this AU.</p><p>Tomorrow, I begin posting the story that is the sequel this one - Naruto Nonsense, the story of how Naruto grows up Uzumaki (FERAL in the BRAIN), meets Sasuke, and snags himself a boyfriend.</p><p>Have fun!</p><p>— Phlebas</p>
        </blockquote><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>On a completely different note, I set up a server on Discord for my writing and you can go poke me <a href="https://discord.gg/gFF4MCzhqq">there.</a></p><p>Since I actually write directly onto the server, all the warnings for my stories apply to any content that may be found on there and I swear. Just FYI.</p><p>I'm also on <a href="https://phlebasphoenician.tumblr.com">Tumblr</a>!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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